November 9, for the 2009 World Series of Poker Final Table

There are really only two stories that you will hear about going into the airing of the final table, that is the story of Phil Ivey making the final table (with a shot at a third bracelet this year alone) and to a lesser extent the Story of Darvin Moon's amazing run. I am not saying Phil Ivey can not win but the odds on him doing so are long, what you are seeing is Full Tilt's PR machine in full gear. Which is great for poker because people love Phil Ivey. But the story is Darvin Moon, the logger from Maryland that would not even take endorsement money from the online poker rooms (which means he turned down BIG GIANT money). He did so because he did not want to endorse something he does not use and just is not interested in being crowned the "face of poker" before he wins anything. Up to this point Darvin has shown himself to be likable, humble and nowhere near the "aw-shuck's" good old boy he is being portrayed as. Now do not get me wrong, he has been hit so hard with the deck that he may come to the final table dizzy but he also played most of those situations fairly well and when the November 9 bubble approached Darvin knew what to do.

Billy Kopp will regret his play

The hand that will likely be talked about for a very long time however was when Darvin Moon knocked out Billy Kopp but like most poker scenario's this was not the only hand that told the story. Billy was the chip leader by a decent margin, by all accounts he was moving his chips well and stealing blinds, then these three fateful hands happened:

Jordan Smith's QQ vs Billy's AK, Jordan fades all five streets and doubles up. Billy's call here was very questionable because Jordan moved all in for quite a bit. Billy played to get lucky and did not. Looking back I think he will see this play as a mistake, flipping (if you can call 44%-56% a flip) in that situation just was not needed, I think Billy tried to get a stack and made some marginal decisions in doing so. That likely contributed to his fuzzy thinking.

The fold of pocket fours where he would have done significant damage to Darvin Moon when Darvin makes three Nines on the river with A9, Billy would have had a full house. You could see him steaming in the broadcast that he missed this spot, choosing not to get involved with the other big stack and playing cautiously.

Now I will tell you his bust out hand, the often criticized bust out hand, Billy has talked a lot about this hand and I will tell you what he says about it, which I believe is revisionist history. In early position Billy raises with 3d 5d, which is a marginal hand for sure but he probably got his chip stack that way, so keep that in mind. Also keep in mind that the table is relatively short handed and people were playing very tight. Darvin Moon defends his small blind with Qd Jd, the flop brings all diamonds and is relatively uneventful. The turn pairs the board, this is where everything happened, Darvin checks and Billy bets, Darvin then makes a big check raise for a good portion of his stack and Billy pushes all in with the worst flush and just like that he went from chip leader to gone. Darvin later said that he did not see the board pair but let's be honest, everyone knows that he is going broke there, you don't play Qd Jd and then hit your flush to play small ball. It was Billy that forced the action, Billy looked flustered when he got check raised and later said when he pushed he decided to turn his hand into a bluff. Billy seems like a nice guy but he is not telling the truth, he did not know where he was in the hand and got lost. It happens to all of us, only all of us do not have our ticket basically checked to go to one of the more prestigious final tables in poker history. Sadly I think Billy will be saddled with that play for the rest of his life, it is not easy to make final tables with fields that big, so you have to feel a bit bad for the guy.

Billy Kopp's interview with Cardplayer Magazine

I feel bad for Jordan Smith

Dean Hamrick is one of my better friends in poker, he came in tenth last year. It is a testament to his will as a person that he is not main lining heroin under a bridge somewhere at the moment. He took two awful beats from two silly plays and he went from top 3 in chips to out 10th. I bought my WSOP seat from Jordan Smith one year and you are likely never going to find a nicer guy in all of poker (same could be said for Dean really). He just got set up so hard on the hand that he got knocked out on. You will hear a lot more from Jordan, he is a phenomenal player and I was glad to see that he won a bracelet this year. The hand where he got knocked out he had Aces and Darvin Moon had Eights and Darvin flopped an eight to win a pot with over 30 million in chips.

The Phil Ivey show never materialized

Phil had to fade one all in (A 10 vs K Q) but for the most part he folded his way to the final table. ESPN did a cool special on him where he traveled around the world shooting dice, you can check that out below.

ESPN's video interview with Phil Ivey

The November Nine, seats and chips:

Seat 1: Darvin Moon 58,930,000

Seat 2: James Akenhead 6,800,000

Seat 3: Phil Ivey 9,765,000

Seat 4: Kevin Schaffel 12,390,000

Seat 5: Steven Begleiter 29,885,000

Seat 6: Eric Buchman 34,800,000

Seat 7: Joe Cada 13,215,000

Seat 8: Antoine Saout 9,500,000

Seat 9: Jeff Shulman 19,580,000

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